Just as before when we learned about Bank Shots, everybody is trying to find the half-way distance between the ball and the rail and the pocket. So, here’s a technique for how to figure that out with better accuracy than just eyeballing it.

Please note: There are some techniques that are far easier to understand visually than to read about them. This is one of them. I highly recommend watching the video for this particular example.

To successfully make kick shots, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the diamonds on your table. You’ll need to use the diamonds for all your measuring. It’s important to remember that even though they aren’t labeled, each pocket is a diamond. Remember this!

So, imagine you’ve got your ball stuck right next to the corner pocket. Your cue ball is near the center pocket.We’re going to figure out how to make the cue ball go into that pocket. For now, we’re only going to focus on making our cue ball into the pocket (we’ll adjust for the object ball later).

I don’t want to use the diamonds behind the cue ball, I want to use the ones in front of it. I want to find the closest diamond to the cue ball. Now I’m going to parallel it and split it. It’s useful ,when you’re just starting out with this technique, to bring another cue over to perform the paralleling and splitting. After you’ve split it, you want to come straight out on the rail, so that your point will be accurate.

Now you’ve got your cue stick set up on your point. It’s time to figure out the where I want to make contact on the object ball. Again, we just want to parallel it and split the difference.

If you’d rather not have to keep looking at the rail, just visualize it in your head, pick the point, the center of your cue and figure out what the distance is. In this example, it’s a little over an inch. Now just move the cue over an inch that direction. This is where you’re going to make contact on the object ball. So, you’ve set your halfway point with far greater accuracy than eyeballing it. It’s time to make your shot.

Lets learn how to do Three-Rail Kick Shots. Just like Two-Rail Kick Shots, this is a very useful technique to learn for general gameplay. You’ll find that the basic principles of kick-shots apply to just about everything else in the game, so this is a great technique to learn.

Everybody is a little different on how they approach their three-rail kick shots. You’ll want to use running English for your kick-shots. This means that once the cue ball hits the rail, it’ll take off faster.

You next need to find a spot somewhere in the room that’s approximately 20 feet out from where you are. This is where you want to aim your ball using running English. Once you have your spot picked out, and you’ve taken a few successful shots to verify that it’s the correct spot to be aiming at, you can then position the cue ball anywhere on the table and still use that spot to make your shot.

Let’s learn how to do Two-Rail Kick Shots. This is a very useful technique to learn for general gameplay. You’ll find that the basic principles of kick-shots apply to just about everything else in the game, so this is a great technique to learn.

You’ll want to use running English (left hand English) for any multiple rail kick-shots, including this one. You then need to imagine a spot somewhere in the room that’s about 20 feet away from where you are standing. This spot is where you want to make the ball come into contact with the first rail. You then need to aim for that spot and strike the ball using running English. You’ll likely need to practice this “spot visualization” technique quite a bit to get really good at it.

The cool thing about this technique is that, once you have your spot picked out, you can keep using that exact same spot no matter where your cue ball is. As long as you keep aiming through that spot, you’ll make your shot every time.

Today I’m going to show you an easy way to shoot short kick-shots. Kick-Shots are usually somewhat close to the pocket and often difficult to see from the other end of the table. As with everything, there is an easy trick to repeatably getting these types of shots. I call it “The Two Finger Rule”.

The Two Finger Rule is essentially a way of creating a visual reference for your eye to follow so that you can shoot the cue ball in exactly the right place to make your ball. In the example below, I’ll show you how it’s impossible to see the 14 ball because the 7 ball is in the way.

Using the Two Finger Rule, you’ll want to take your thumb and index finger and place your index finger and place it exactly where you’re going to make contact on the ball. Take your thumb and move it until it just touches the rail. Now your thumb and index finger should be forming a nice little gap of about 1 – 2 inches.

Making sure not to move your fingers, take your hand and move it laterally to the rail until your index finger that was originally touching the ball is now touching the rail. Your thumb should now be touching somewhere in the middle of the rail.Press your thumb down where it is and straighten your index finger out. You should kind of look like you’re pointing an imaginary gun, only upside down. By doing this, you’ll create a reference point that you can aim at from the other end of the table.

Lift up your hand, but keep your eyes fixated on the point that your thumb was on. Do not remove your eyes from that shot! Once you get back to your cue ball, line up your shot on that spot on the rail you set and shoot straight through the rail at that point. You’ll make it nearly every time.

There are plenty of games where you’ll have a shot where you’re close to the pocket, straight in, the balls are off the rail and you need to get the cue ball to the other end of the table. Although it looks like a real unlikely situation, this is another shot that’s not as hard as it may seem. The trick lies in The Two Finger Rule.

If you have not yet seen my explanation of The Two Finger Rule, take a moment to check out my earlier explanation here on the Billiards Direct Blog. Now that you’ve got the idea for what the Two Finger Rule is, let’s go over how we can use it to make the shot I mentioned earlier.

Take your two fingers to the ball you want to make and create a reference point on the rail to aim at. Now, go back to your cue ball and aim straight through to that point. Ordinarily, this would be all you’d need to do to make your ball but in this situation we also need to get shape at the end of the table. We’ll need to introduce a new element to our shot: Draw.

Draw is an easy way to help get your cue ball to the other end of the table. However, by adding draw to your shot, the cue ball will lift off the rail sooner. To compensate for this you just want to aim just a little bit further up past where your Two Finger Rule mark was. Move that imaginary mark slightly closer to the object ball. The amount you aim will be a little bit different for everybody because everybody has a different draw. You can also experiemnt using less/more draw to see how far you can make it down the table.

If you want to use high, just move your Two Finger Rule spot a little closer (towards your cue ball). The same techniques apply as before. It’s all a matter of your shooting style and what you’re comfortable with.